Any evil mage of sufficient skill can perform the profane rituals required to become a Lich, binding his soul to a phylactery. However, few Liches ever realize their full potential, developing their unholy talents even further. Those that do are known as Emperor Liches, and they are among the most powerful of evils, considered in equal standing with some of the most feared devils and demons. An Emperor Lich can inspire terror in the bravest of hearts, and kill with a touch. They are even harder to destroy the normal Liches, being capable of creating multiple phylacteries, laying powerful curses on them, and even transforming their phylacteries into powerful guardians.

d12 HD

Requirements
To qualify to become a Emperor Lich, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any Evil
Feats: Evil Brand (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Evil_Brand,BV), Malign Spell Focus (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Malign_Spell_Focus,BV)
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 14 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 14 ranks
Spells: Must be capable of casting 6th-level arcane or divine spells.
Special: Must have performed the vile rituals required to become a Lich.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Emperor Lich prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
You gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spellcasting
Whenever you gain a new Emperor Lich level except 3rd, 6th, and 9th, you gain new spells per day and spells known as if you had also gained a level in an arcane or divine spellcasting class you belonged to before you added the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained.

Dread Touch (Su)
At 1st level, you gain the ability to kill your foes with a touch, and then reanimate your bodies as your undead servants. Once per day, you may make a touch attack against a living foe. If the attack is successful, that creature must make a Fortitude save, DC 10 + your class level + your Charisma modifier, or die. Creatures killed by your dread touch ability rise 1d6 rounds later as either skeletons or zombies under your control. Undead created with this ability do not count against the maximum number of undead you can control. You may use this ability twice per day at 4th level, and three times per day at 8th level.

Eyes of the Soul (Sp)
At 1st level, you can always keep a careful eye on your phylactery. You are constantly aware of the location of your phylactery, as the discern location power. In addition, you may scry on your phylactery at will, as the spell scrying, with caster level equal to your own. At 7th level, when you use this ability to scry on your phylactery, it instead functions as the greater scrying spell.

Aura of Terror (Su)
At 2nd level, your aura of fear becomes more powerful than that of a normal Lich. It becomes capable of affecting any creature whose HD is less than or equal to your caster level.

Soul’s Gate (Sp)
At 3rd level, you gain the ability to instantly transport to the location of your phylactery once per day as a standard action, as the greater teleport spell, with caster level equal to your own. However, you may only bring along yourself and any objects you are carrying when you use this ability.

Extra Phylactery (Su)
At 4th level, you gain the ability to create a single additional phylactery to serve as a second repository for your soul. To do so, you must perform the normal rituals for creating a phylactery. However, the cost of the secondary phylactery is reduced, as you can use your undead power to fuel its creation. You must expend 60,000 gp of raw materials and spend 2,400 xp to create the phylactery. Once you have completed this process, you must take the second phylactery to the location of your original phylactery, and then perform an 8 hour ritual to divide your soul between your two phylacteries. Only once you have completed this process does your second phylactery become a repository of your life force.

If you are destroyed, you may reform your body as long as either one of your phylacteries remains intact. If both of your phylacteries are intact, you may choose to reform your body at the location of either one. Only if both of your phylacteries are destroyed can you not reform your body if you are destroyed. If one of your phylacteries is destroyed, you may recreate it, using the normal procedure for creating an additional phylactery, but if both of your phylacteries are destroyed, you cannot recreate either.

At 7th level, you may construct a third phylactery. The procedure for doing so is exactly the same as for creating a second phylactery, except that at the final ritual, you must bring both of your preexisting phylacteries together along with your newly created phylactery to imbue it with your life force.

Accursed Phylactery (Su)
At 5th level, your malevolent power curses those who seek to destroy your phylacteries. Any living creature that touches one of your phylacteries must make a Will save, DC 10 + your class level + your Charisma modifier, or be affected as by the bestow curse spell. The exact effects of the curse are determined by you when you gain this ability. They are the same for all of your phylacteries, and once you have chosen them, they cannot be changed. In addition, a creature that fails its initial save must then make a Fortitude save for each hour it carries your phylactery, or gain 1d4 negative levels. A creature that succeeds on its initial save is immune to the affects of this ability for 24 hours.

In addition, if one of your phylacteries is destroyed, it unleashes a blast of negative energy. All living creatures within 30 ft. of it take 10d6 damage and gain 1d4 negative levels. A successful Fortitude save, DC 10 + your class level + your Charisma modifier, halves the damage and prevents the negative levels from being gained. Undead creatures are healed, rather than harmed, by the damage.

Unholy Presence (Sp)
At 6th level, you gain an aura of negative energy, with effects identical to the unhallow spell, with caster level equal to your own. However, only undead allied with you gain the benefits of the aura. You may tie a spell to your aura as a full-round action by expending a prepared spell or spell slot whose level is the same as that of the spell to be tied to the aura. Unlike with the unhallow spell, spells tied to your aura remain so until you tie another spell to your aura.

Animate Phylactery (Su)
At 9th level, you can manipulate the fragments of your soul contained within your phylacteries to transform your phylacteries into animated simulacra of yourself. Doing so requires a full-round action. You can animate a phylactery regardless of the distance between you and it, though you must be on the same plane as it.

Once animated, a phylactery turns into a replica of yourself. This functions much like the simulacrum spell, with a few differences. The animated phylactery’s body is formed of necrotic flesh, rather than snow and ice. Unlike with a simulacrum, you do have a telepathic link with the animated phylactery, one that functions regardless of distance as long as you are both on the same plane. No Disguise check is required to make the animated phylactery resemble yourself–it is a perfect duplicate, indistinguishable from you except by divination magic.

You can animate each of your phylacteries for a number of minutes per day equal to your class level. This duration need not be continuous–you may spread it out throughout the day as you see fit. If one of the animated phylacteries is brought to 0 hp or below, it reverts to phylactery form, and is destroyed.

CthulhuM

2007-07-10, 10:35 PM

I like it - it looks like an excellent way of making a tenacious high-level BBEG. Just to clarify, though, if the simulacra are destroyed, does that destroy the phylactery, or does it just end the simulacrum effect for that day and leave the phylactery lying on the ground?

Also, perhaps the class could use a way to make its phylacteries harder to destroy (only possible in a consecrated area, or with the help of a bunch of clerics channeling turn undead attempts at it for example). The accursed phylactery ability won't come into play much so long as the PCs can just snap their fingers and shatter it, or smack it with a corrosive weapon until it melts.

talse

2007-07-10, 10:44 PM

it seems with the animate phylactery ability the lich could carry around his 3 phylacteries when he wants to and turn 1 man into a party of 17th level spell casters.

The Demented One

2007-07-10, 10:57 PM

Just to clarify, though, if the simulacra are destroyed, does that destroy the phylactery, or does it just end the simulacrum effect for that day and leave the phylactery lying on the ground?
The phylactery is destroyed.

The accursed phylactery ability won't come into play much so long as the PCs can just snap their fingers and shatter it, or smack it with a corrosive weapon until it melts.
Might add a bit of retribution for destroying the phylactery.

it seems with the animate phylactery ability the lich could carry around his 3 phylacteries when he wants to and turn 1 man into a party of 17th level spell casters.
Keep in mind that a simulacrum has 1/2 the levels of the creature it is a duplicate of, so they'd be turning into 10th level characters. More of a "Mwahaha, you only defeated my clone!" ability than a one-man party ability.

mikeejimbo

2007-07-11, 06:15 AM

Not to mention the dangers of being in the same place as all your phylacteries at once. You'd be easier to defeat.

talse

2007-07-11, 09:14 AM

you know, if you don't tell your players who this guy is and leave it to them to look it up in a library in the gameworld, they wouldn't quite know that they hadn't defeated the lich proper. they'd just think it was an unusual phylactery defense mechanism.

DeathQuaker

2007-07-11, 09:35 AM

And here I was, sending the party I am GMing on a quest to destroy the evil Lich King's Phylactery, and wondering what awful things I could have the phylactery/phylactery chamber do to them when they got there.

You have lovely, lovely timing. Well done. I don't think I'll use this class specifically--it's a little too powerful for the party's level--but you've got a lot of good ideas for a high (epic)-level enemy.

The Demented One

2007-07-11, 12:11 PM

And here I was, sending the party I am GMing on a quest to destroy the evil Lich King's Phylactery, and wondering what awful things I could have the phylactery/phylactery chamber do to them when they got there.

You have lovely, lovely timing. Well done. I don't think I'll use this class specifically--it's a little too powerful for the party's level--but you've got a lot of good ideas for a high (epic)-level enemy.
Thanks. You could consider making your Evil Lich just the animated phylactery of the real BBEG...

PlasticSoldier

2007-07-22, 11:08 AM

Thanks. You could consider making your Evil Lich just the animated phylactery of the real BBEG...

with that dread touch ability you could make Tens of thousands of soldiers in about 20 years a drop in the bucket for anyone that is immortal.

Keledrath

2007-07-22, 08:47 PM

One thing that I would add to protect the thingy from undead is that when it's destroyed, any undead that recieve their HP worth in healing fall under the Emporer Lich's control. They do not count against his normal limit.